Family summer vacations as a kid often involved long drives in the car. Whether we were going some where we had never been to or visiting friends or family, it was never close.
One summer, we went to Kentucky to visit cousins. They were both adopted, but as far as we were concerned, they were cousins just the same. Jeannette was my age, Scott four or five years older. Because of the distance, we rarely saw them, once every two or three years. It was always a good time when we got together though.
The day we got there, we spent the late afternoon in the pool. Mostly horsing around and throwing a football in the water with Scott, Jeannette and my brother while the parents sat around and talked. It was difficult not to notice Jeannette in a bikini. She was above average height, athletic and let's face it, she had nice round tits.
I tried to avoid too much physical contact Jeannette while horsing around. It was clear too much contact with her was going to get me hard. I didn't want her to feel it, or worse yet, the rest of the family to see it
That night, the whole family went to the county fair. Our parents gave us some money and sent us off while they mostly walked around and continued to catch up. The four of us stayed together for a little while, we rode the roller coaster, the tilt a whirl and played some carnival games.
Scott eventually ran into some friends and decided to go off with them for the rest of the night. My brother, who was several years younger, decided he wanted to join the adults again so off we went to find them.
After dropping off my brother, Jeannette and I were off again, but this time on our own. It was exciting to be off on my own with her, a little bit like a date. Out alone with an attractive girl my own age. There was a familiarity and excitement of being around her, at the same time we didn't see each other often so it didn't feel like being out with someone who was off limits.
We came across a dunk tank where some guy in his early to mid 20's was trying to relive his baseball glory days. His friends cheered him on while his frustration grew.
"You play ball, why don't you give it a try," Jeannette said.
I looked at her and smiled, then looked over at the frustrated guy who was laying down a dollar for five more throws.
"Sure, why not?" I said.
I laid down a dollar at the other end of the long narrow partition that was set up. The barker laid down five balls in front of me and I eyed up the target on my side of the dunk tank while the frustrated guy made a couple more throws.
I missed with the first ball, but the second one struck the target and the guy in the tank went into the water with a loud splash.
"Yes!" Jeannette cheered and jumped and then grabbed my hand.
I looked at her, smiled and squeezed her hand as I heard other people clapping and cheering in the background. The frustrated guy looked down the length of the partition at me, expressing surprise that I had hit it.
The guy in the dunk tank snapped the seat back into place and hoisted himself back up, ready for another go. It took me another throw to dial the target back in, but then I hit again on the next one. Back into the water for the poor guy.
More cheers from Jeannette and crowd. The frustrated guy and his friends looked down the length of the partition again. The barker talked the crowd up on how easy it was to hit the target.
I missed on my last throw. Should I spend another dollar?
"Two out of five, come on, my grandmother could do better," the barker announced.
"Two more and you can select a prize," he added, pointing to a line of stuffed two foot teddy bears hanging from a rope at the other end of the attraction.
Jeannette smiled and nodded. I laid down another dollar for five more balls.
The barker laid down my round. It didn't take long and I had two more hits. Jeannette was excited and picked out a yellow bear.
We were both pretty much out of money at this point and headed off to find our parents. We worked our way back through the crowds, stopping periodically to watch someone play a game or the people on the rides. Eventually we found our parents and shortly it was time to head home.